My BodyBlog

The winter storm that blew through here yesterday changed my travel plans for work and provided me with an opportunity for a workout!  I only moved it up by one day, but after sitting at my desk for two days I was getting anxious, my body was telling me it needed some exercise!  For my deadlifts I kept the weight moderate for the most part and only did a couple of heavier lifts at the end.  My sets were 135×12, 185×10, 225×10, 247×6, 285×4, 307×2, & 351×1.  As I said before I’ll only try for a new PR once a month, the other deadlift workouts will be focusing on form, strength and mass building doing different deadlift variations, weights and rep schemes.  It’s all about building strength in my legs and back as I work towards a 500 pound lift this year.

After deadlifting I did six sets of lying hamstring curls, varying the weights and doing two supersets.  During the workout I jumped rope 655 times and after lifting I did 10 minutes on the bike and 12 minutes on the treadmill, moderate pace.  I could really feel it in my hamstrings after all that….a great workout!

Over the past several weeks I’ve had a little trouble getting my weight belt comfortable when doing deadlifts and squats.  At times it’s pinched my skin and I’ve had some bruising.  I just figured I wasn’t wearing it right and I kept moving it up or down.  Last night the problem was more severe, then it occurred to me, maybe it’s too loose?  So I tightened it up another notch and voila!  Problem solved!  It was snug but I could still take deep breaths, I kept deadlifting and felt very comfortable.  So you know what that means….it’s a sure sign that the bodyfat is coming off, what I see in the mirror has been confirmed by the weight belt!

Tuesday evening before going to the gym my body was telling me I needed an extra day of rest.  I lifted heavy on Friday, moved furniture and was on my feet most of the weekend, then did heavy squats Sunday night.  I felt a little sore but that wasn’t the main thing…I just felt tired.  But did I listen to my body?  No!  Missing Tuesday night would mean I couldn’t lift again until Friday due to work commitments…too long to wait!

Working sets required 200×5, 200×5, 215×3, 215×3.  Felt like I was lifting a lot more and I just barely got through the last set.  Quite a change from the workout before when I had little trouble with 215×3.  I know it’s my back that’s the most tired…using it working out and moving furniture four days in a row, which included pull-ups and heavy squats…the same thing happened to me last time I did the bench program when my back was tired.  Last night was also a failure test at 220.  Should have been no problem for me to lift 220 three times, I’ve done it before, but I just barely managed two.

So the bench program is half done!  I’ve completed all sets called for, sometimes with ease and sometimes not so easily!  But one thing that has been consisent is good form and a consistent comfort level under the bar, bench pressing has become a natural movement for me now.  The second half of the program is where the heavy lifts start to come, it’s where you really work your butt off to make gains.  I know I have to be 100% going into every bench press workout if I’m going to make the most of it and do all the lifts.  That means for the next month or so I have to be really smart about what I’m doing at the gym every workout, especially the workout before I bench press.  If I’m doing physical things outside the gym, I’m going to have to take that into account too.  The next four weeks will be a test of my mental focus as well as my physical strength.

I really started believing I could uncover my abs in November, 2007.  I started using this site and I saw the amazing transformations that other average people like me had made and I made up my mind that I would join their ranks.  A little over one year later I know there’s nothing ‘average’ about the knowledge, commitment and actions that it takes to achieve defined abs…I salute everyone who has made that journey.  My journey continues.

Building up the ab muscles has not been a problem for me…been working abs for 5 years, and in 2008 I got a lot better at it thanks to all the info on this site.  I know how to work them to failure so they are screaming at me to stop, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of time…it’s all about form and intensity.  I’ve been able to feel my abs under the body fat for several months now…helping to motivate me to keep going.

The hardest challenge for me has been losing the body fat.  I’ve been losing body fat all over for five years, slowly but surely.  The pace has quickened since I seriously cleaned up my diet in Nov/07.  As is true with most men, the fat around the waist is the last to go.  Thankfully I can see a great deal of difference in the mirror, and especially with my pants.  So I’m making progress…. but it’s still a work in progress and it is hard to stay patient when I want to reach a goal so badly.  Plus it’s been on my mind that maybe what I’m doing would take me only so far, and I would plateau at a certain body fat level and stay there.   So, at the end of 2008 I took a hard look at what I was doing at the gym and with my diet to see if I could make some changes that would give me a better chance at achieving defined abs and do it faster.

I love lifting heavy and work hard at improving my bench, squat and deadlift numbers.  Some say that strength training and getting lean don’t go well together, and I probably agree if you want fast results in either area.  But I’ve proven to myself that you can make progress on both if you eat the right things at the right time and workout smartly.  Muscle tissue takes a lot of energy to build and maintain, the more muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn.  It’s happening to me, I’ll keep going with it.

I know that the fastest way to burn body fat is to have a caloric deficit…burn more than you consume.  The fastest way to burn is cardio activity….the more intense the better.  I’ve never been an athlete and I work behind a desk so I have to make a real effort to have cardio activity in my life.  Thanks to my wife who loves to walk, a daily moderately paced walk at least half an hour but often much longer, has been a part of our daily routine whenever possible for many years.  I credit this walk with helping keep my weight from getting really out of control all those years before I started lifting when I was eating poorly…but this walk isn’t enough cardio to burn the fat I need to burn now.  So I’ve made an effort to do more cardio, and specifically more intense cardio but during 2008 I wasn’t consistent with it.  I might go a few weeks then stop for a few weeks.  A lot better than doing none I know, but it’s consistency and intensity I need to get defined abs.  So I vowed to do cardio after every workout starting in January, and so far I’ve kept up with that except for one workout where my legs were shot.  Could only ride the bike for a few minutes that day.  HIIT training on the treadmill really gets my heart rate up and I soak my shirt with sweat after 15 minutes, so my goal was to do this a lot, but I’m finding that doing so much heavy squatting and deadlifting takes a toll on my legs and I cramp up if I try to sprint within a couple of days after doing these lifts.  So I would use the bike or incline walk on the treadmill.  Not as good as the treadmill HIIT.  But I’ve been discoving another way to do cardio…jumping rope.  I started in December, just doing a few jumps between lifting sets, I could do 10-15 reps and thought that was great.  I’ve been working on it, and now I can do 60-70 reps no problem and sometimes hit 100.  I’ve started doing it every workout between sets and I do 500+ reps before I know it, keeping my heart rate high and turning a weight lifting workout into a cardio workout.  It’s a lot easier on the legs too, and I’ll still do the HIIT on the treadmill as often as I can.  I know doing cardio every day is a lot better than 3 or 4 times a week…so I’ve bought my own rope and cleared away a space in the house where I can jump rope to my heart’s content any time I want.  The bottom line is I’m dedicated now to consistency with intense cardio.

My diet was really holding me back until I cleaned it up in November, 2007.  Took a long time to be mentally ready to give up comfort and convenience foods….but my bodybuilding goals and achievements became more important to me.  I learned to look at food as only a tool….fuel for my body.  Still had to learn a lot about what I should be eating and when to eat…but I’ve come a long way.  I’m not perfect but compared to before it’s 99% better.  But one thing I had been reading about that I decided to try starting this year was to eliminate carbs in the evening.  People said it helps fat loss so starting this month, for 5 or 6 days of the week, I’ve not eaten any significant carbs after my dinner meal, usually 6pm.  I’ve been going for chicken breast, tuna and cottage cheese to fill me up before bed and get me through the night.  It’s only been 4 weeks so it’s probably too soon to evaluate what impact this is having on me…however I can see definite signs of progress, there is a little definition starting below the pecs to the navel.  Just enough to be a teaser, a hint of what might be possible if I keep working at it…enough to motivate me to keep working at it, keep striving to improve, keep believing in myself…

Finally!  A home extension project that started in August is finally nearing completion!  My wife and I were able to move into our new home offices over the weekend.  Although we have some things to finish up in the spring, the new space is now usable.  We designed it to be functional, add value to our house, and free up other living space.  I can now work without having to listen to the washer and without a number of other inconveniences I lived with for years.

You’d think the move would be simple…just switching things around in the same house.  No such luck!  Besides the actual moving of desks, chairs, cabinets and bookshelves, I had to make dozens of trips up one staircase, to the other end of the house, then down another staircase.  I could have saved a lot of trouble if I could have walked outdoors with it all, but wet weather made that impossible.  So instead I got in lots of lifting and cardio….then I went to the gym!

Squats was the primary exercise planned for the workout…the power rack was in use so I started the workout with some pull-ups and trap work while I waited…oh yeah, and I jumped rope too.  I am struggling with pullups lately, and no wonder since I’m bench pressing heavy about twice a week.  Started squats about 45 minutes after getting to the gym.  I wasn’t feeling 100%, all the physical activity over the weekend was starting to take its toll.  I had planned to do pyramid sets, going up to 315 or 325.  Turns out the heaviest set I had in me was 295×3.  I’m really happy with the workout though, I got in some quality lifts and all reps were to parallel, no half measures there!  After squats time for some cardio and I managed 12 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill, but by that time I was completely done in and it was time to give up before I hurt myself.  After the workout I had my protein shake, half can of tuna and some cottage cheese.  Yum!  

Tonight’s bench press workout was as much a mental challenge as it was a physical one.  The gym was very quiet and there was no one there to spot me.  Since I had some heavy lifts scheduled plus a negative, I had to resort to setting up for bench press in the power rack.  I’ve only done bench press there a couple of times before because I had no choice, and I had trouble getting comfortable under the bar and did not have the best of results.  When I get into a habit of doing things a certain way it makes me uncomfortable to change, and the bench press is no different.  So facing using the power rack again immediately started to affect my confidence, and my first reaction was that I was going to have a disappointing workout.

But then I started to think about the situation logically.  I can use the same form as on the flat bench, all I have to do is take my time and adjust the bench, bar height, and safety pins so that I feel no different than on the regular bench station.  I just have to be patient and keep adjusting until I feel just right.  And that’s what I did.  It took me awhile to get everything just right, and I ended up doing a couple of extra warm-up sets in the process.  But finally I was ready to start my working sets and I re-established my confidence level to where it needed to be.  I did working sets 215×3, 215×3, 230×2, 230×2 and 255xNeg.  The 230 sets were hard, and the last rep on the second set didn’t go as close to my chest as it should have, but I got it back up cleanly so I’ll take it.  So I successfully bench pressed at the power rack, and I know I can have success there now any time I need to use it.  I’ve proven to myself once again that progress in bodybuilding is about small victories and it’s often just as much about mental attitude, focus and determination as it is about the physical part.

After benching I did a few chest isolaton exercises, nothing too heavy, then I blasted biceps doing palms-down pullups, dumbbell curls, and cable curls, mostly supersets and between sets I jumped rope for my cardio doing 896 reps in all.  A record for me, next time I’ll go for 1000!

It was a stressful week at work….knowing that Friday night I could hit the iron and feel the rush that comes from an exhausting but rejuvinating workout, that knowledge made it much easier to get through the stressful days and for me that’s one of the greatest things about bodybuilding and why I love it so much.   

Given the theme of my last post, it’s ironic that I can tell you about what happened to me just one day later - a prime example of dealing with traditional unhealthy foods.  I was working at a client’s office today, they are a not-for profit organization and it just so happens they were having a fundraising event, serving a Jiggs Dinner over the lunch hour. 

What is a Jiggs Dinner you ask?  It’s probably the most popular traditional meal in my province, it’s a weekly tradition in many households in some form or another.  A full blown Jiggs Dinner includes a roast chicken or roast of beef, savoury dressing, and boiled up together in a big pot, potatoe, carrot, turnip, peas pudding, cabbage and salt beef.  All the food on the plate is smothered in gravy.  The one being served today was scaled down to just the salt beef, cabbage, potatoe, carrot, turnip, dressing and gravy. 

The Office Manager kindly invited me to join him for a Jiggs Dinner.  It would have been rude for me not to accept and instead sit there eating my sandwich, the Manager and the volunteers who made and served the food would have no doubt been offended.  So in the interest of client relations I accepted BUT I politely asked to have a couple of things left off my plate.  I took a pass on the salt beef and gravy, the saltiest and fattiest parts of the meal.  I had a couple of odd looks and I just said I don’t like those two things.  So I ate basically a plate of boiled vegetables and a small scoop of dressing.  More importantly I participated in a little social and cultural eating without doing too much harm to my diet.  I feel really good about how I handled the situation, it’s a little thing I know but it is part of my philosophy that a lot of little lifestyle changes applied consistenly add up to big changes in the body.  It’s working for me.  

I’ve touched on this at various times in blog posts - but it’s been bothering me so much lately that I want to devote a whole post to it.  There will be some ranting as I get my frustrations out so be warned…read on if you dare.

I live in Newfoundland, Canada, where traditional foods are a big thing.  Some ingredients and preparation methods have been passed down through the generations for hundreds of years and are very different from other places in North America.  Many of those foods and prep methods are not the healthiest.  This in itself was not always bad…most negatives associated with traditional foods were offset since years ago all people were very phsically active as they worked the land and sea to feed their families and survive.  Given the change in society over the past 50 years where fast food and processed foods are consumed, and where physical activity has been steadily declining, the added factor of traditional foods, which I’ll call ‘Cultural Eating’ is another contributor to health problems in my opinion.

Are there really health problems?  You betcha!  I won’t quote research sources but I have read and heard the results of studies that show in our province we have among the highest, or the highest, levels of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and other diseases and medical conditions in Canada.  I have relatives, and know many others, whose health is deteriorating and whose bodies are failing them in their fifties and sixties.  I believe a lifestyle of Cultural Eating is a significant factor contributing to health problems.

I don’t have to explain to anyone about social eating…we all face it most everyday as many of our work and family functions are accompanied by food, for reasons of tradition or convenience.  With these functions often comes pressure from peers and family to conform by partaking in the food, often to excess.  We are looked at as ‘abnormal’ or ‘anti-social’ or ‘unappreciative’ if we do not conform and induldge.  Worst yet is when the social eating involves Cultural Eating….

I feel very lucky to have been able to take control over both social eating and cultural eating in my life, but it took awhile.  Due to family circumstances I had to start preparing my own meals at the age of 16, and I still do up to this day.  This has allowed me to learn a lot about nutrition over the years.  Unfortunalty, I fell victim for a long time to the lure of convenient fast foods and processed foods, and I did my share of social eating.  I didn’t do much cultural eating, thank goodness.  I was always bothered by many of my eating habits though, because I knew better, I knew how to eat well, I just wasn’t motivated enough to do it.  Over a year ago, bodybuilding got me motivated.  I realized to truly get the most out of my efforts at the gym and transform my body, I had to get serious about eating right.  I always had the tools, now I had the motivation to use them.  I was quickly able to focus on what I had to do to help me build muscle and drop fat.  I’ve been doing it for 15 months and the results are there.  It’s sometimes not easy to go against the flow of what everyone else is doing, but I wouldn’t live life any other way now.

What saddens me is knowing that so many people haven’t been able to take control of their diet.  They are social and cultural eaters and don’t realize how this is contributing to either their health problems or their lack of fitness progress.  I see it just about every time I go to the gym.  People of all ages working their butts off and then talking about having fried food, fast food, etc etc when they leave the gym.  Same goes for alcohol consumption.  Call it Cultural Drinking I guess, especially among single late teens and young adults.  The norm is to go to parties and drink lots of beer at least once over the weekend, maybe more.  When I think about how people are holding themselves back from their bodies’ true potential and harming their health I almost want to cry…and I want to challenge everyone I hear talking about their eating and drinking and try to make them realize the impact it is having on their body….but of course I can’t.  All I can do is be a role model and talk about how I eat if I’m asked.

I’m not saying that people who live a healthy lifestyle can never partake in social and cultural eating…of course we can.  But we can do it in moderation, we can do in smartly, we can do it so it doesn’t stop us from meeting our bodybuilding and fitness goals.  I have learned to pick and chose the times I am going to eat something I wouldn’t normally eat.  I do it because I want to, not because anyone is pressuring me to.  I have learned to deal with all forms of family and peer pressure.  I can say no without hurting anyone’s feelings.  If someone doesn’t like the decisions I make about what I put in my body that’s their problem, not mine.  I won’t lose any sleep over it.

I’ll end off by listing some of the traditional ingredients and dishes that are eaten often by many people (especially 40+) in my province.  Some have strange names and I won’t try to explain what they all are.  Some start with a healthy food (eg. fish) but things are added to turn it into something much less healthy.  Some I’ve eaten, some I haven’t.  I don’t touch any of it now:  Salt Fish and Brewis, Salt Beef; Salt Pork Fat Back (used to make frying grease or fried up crunchy to eat - called ’scrunchions’ - yuck!), molasses baked beans, dough boys, toutons.

I hope one person who reads this will find it helpful in eliminating the unhealthy cultural and social eating in their life.   

I am on a cycle where every 4th workout I deadlift and do exercises for hamstrings/back that will help my deadlift.  Once a month I’ll try for a higher one rep max and the goal is to add a little weight every month working towards my goal of 500.  On Dec 26 I lifted 405, equalling my previous best.  I had no idea if my new approach to training would work or not.  Warmed up with Bar x 12 and 135×10.  Didn’t want to use up energy on lighter lifts so I just did 225×5, 315×2 and 365×1 as a lead-up to my new PB attempt.  Decided then I would try for 415, 10 pounds more, that would be a better test of progress than just adding 5 pounds.  

Gym was crowded last night, several regulars were there and it was turning into a social time, more talking than lifting.  I participate a little, but usually keep it to a minimum, I’d rather lift.  Guys were noticing me adding plates to the bar and I was getting some comments.  It still amazes me that all these twenty and thirty year old lifters with good upper bodies shy away from deadlifting and when they see someone doing heavy deadlifts it’s a novelty to them.  As I stood over the bar to get focused for my 415 attempt, I had a few guys stopping what they were doing to watch me.  I wish they didn’t do that, it’s kind of distracting and I had no idea if I could do the lift and to bomb out with an audience watching wouldn’t do much for my confidence!

Thankfully I was able to do the lift!  It was a good lift too, I only slowed a little at the sticking point and with a little extra effort (and an involuntary grunt) I got it up and locked out.  Feels great to know my training is working and I am improving, but what’s even better is that the 415 lift wasn’t as hard as when I did 405 the first time, so I know I still have more in me!  A couple of comments from the guys who watched me do the lift only added to how great I felt.  I followed up with some rack deads and then some ab work and 15 minutes of cardio.  A workout to remember for sure.  

I felt only ‘average’ working out last night.  No where near as strong as my last bench workout.  Nonetheless, it was steady as she goes and I did all required working sets cleanly: 190×6, 200×5, 200×5.  Time for failure test using 215 pounds.  I got a spotter, then did 4 good reps, on the fifth the spotter pushed on the bar ever so slightly as I ran out of steam.  I stopped there, so I’ll score it as a 4, good enough to keep going on the same path in the workout progression table.  I’m very content with that, I’m feeling confident where I’m at and loving the workouts.  After benching I did some rotator cuff and shoulder work.

After I benched another guy started using it.  He was making comments about how far his chest is lagging behing his arms, talking to his buddy, but it’s a small gym so I heard all his comments.  When he started his set I looked over and his grip seemed too close together.  When he started his second set I was closer, getting my water bottle off the counter and sure enough his hands were placed on the bar in such a way that his forarms were not at a 90 degree angle and I could see that his triceps were talking most of the strain trying to lift the bar.  Sitting up he looked at me and repeated that his bench press is weak.  I ased him ‘Are you working chest or triceps’?  He said chest, then asked me if I though his grip was too close.  We then had a short discussion about good technique to work the chest primarily and lift more, he said he finds it awkward holding the bar differently but I think he realizes that if he wants to progress he’s going to have to work at changing his form.  I encouraged him to keep trying and over time it’ll get more comfortable.

I love talking about technique and lifting in general with anyone at the gym who seems interested.  One year ago I wouldn’t have been able to do it, I didn’t know enough and I wouldn’t have been confident enough.  I don’t give any advice unless it’s something I’ve experienced first hand myself, and also it’s something I’ve consistently read about from different sources.  As far as bench press form goes, I’ve come a long way and I know what I’m doing when it comes to the basics of proper form.

Cardio last night was a bust, good thing I had a 45 minute walk in the morning with my wife.  My thighs and hamstrings were sore from my leg workout Friday night, so I could only manage a brisk walk on the treadmill, no sprinting.  The good spin bikes were locked in the ’classes’ room, and the jump rope had broken and someone fixed it but made it so short I couldn’t use it very well.  Time to get my own rope since I really like jumping between sets or for my cardio after lifting. 

Everything in life has its pros and cons.  Even something that many of us strive for, losing body fat.  A few negatives that I’ve experienced recently are:

• I get cold easier when in a cool room or in cooler weather outdoors…must be due to less body ‘insulation’.
• New pants I bought last year don’t fit as well this year…they are looser around the waste and I have to tighten my belt up another notch.
• Size large cotton boxers I bought a couple of years ago now tend to slip and eventually fall down around my knees when I’m wearing them with no pants on around the house…..

Yes, I’m being facetious!  Just kidding around!  These things are true but they pale in comparison to how fantastic I feel and look thanks to adopting a bodybuilding lifestlye and in the process shedding a pile of body fat.  The way I have transformed and continue to transform my body is worth every minute of time I have put in at the gym, every minute of extra effort I have devoted in the kitchen, every minute of time I have spent soaking up knowledge on bb.com!  I am a different person than I was five years ago, I am looking forward to the coming years knowing I’ll continue to improve my physique and feel great!

To solve the minor inconveniences stated above, I’ll wear more clothes to stay warm, I’ll gladly buy better fitting clothes when I have to, and I’ll refrain from wearing those big boxers around the house (or at least wear ones that fit.  Don’t worry.  I keep the blinds closed!)